Going further off of that, I had a brainwave just now...

Assuming the room arrangements do change with every semester (or have the option to mix it up if they want every semester), we could then start off the series with the Young Six all getting shuffled around into new rooms with new roommates and explore their reactions, how they settle in, and any troubles that arise trying to get used to their new roomies, and so on.

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Given the contradictions on display in the show and the comic (I know, it's unprecedented for something like THAT to happen /s), plus the fact that we're starting with a whole new school year, I think we could do our own thing.

Now, I will admit right off: I am horrendously partisan for Smolder and Ocellus, as a couple or as merely close friends and room-mates. But that’s only because there is so much to work with, so much potential from having the two in close proximity and interacting so much.

To paraphrase something Nicole Dubuc said, Smolder and Ocellus seem like great contrast. On the Student Six ‘character wheel’ they were opposite one another which is what she thought made them a great pair; being friends that balance one other out and were better together. She said the show staff grew to love their relationship and that’s why the two were often paired up for interactions as the show went on.

I think Silverstream and Yona being room-mates also lends itself to a lot of fun interactions since they’re both fairly excitable and Yona loves talking about her culture and Silverstream loves learning about anything new, etc.

The guys are together since, well, the school probably wouldn't go with mixed-gender rooms.

That being said, I’m not going to argue that folks should bend their own story conceptions to fit in with mine. But I think there is a way to compromise and to get more potential for stories out there.

Changing up the dorm-mates every semester (Fall, Winter, Spring) would actually be a good way to work around this issue. I don’t think that it’s reinventing the wheel or too complicated. It feels like a natural thing to do. It won't be that hard a detail to get to line up, especially if we want to have stories that relate to specific seasons or pony (or non-pony) holidays.

There are even more stories that can be told this way. Say, for instance, that the girls have to readjust themselves a little bit each semester to the quirks of their roommates—or, the flip-side: Gallus and Sandbar who spend all year together are really getting on each other’s nerves and resent that they really can’t switch up like the girls can.

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Heh, wish I saw this before posting (what I get for rambling on so long)!

Also, new thought:

This can also help with Cozy's stuff since she likely wouldn't have a room-mate to start off with (sensibly enough). Then maybe at some point later on during the season, someone (say, Silverstream) feels sorry that Cozy's on her own and wants somecreature to bunk with her for the new semester; causing a bit of a scrabble as different members of the Student Six trying to figure out who'll end up bunking with who since some of them emphatically do not want to be the one to share a room with Cozy, or else are worried or upset at the idea that, as the seventh, they might be the odd one left frozen out.

It can end with Cozy either being on her own in an adjoining room to the Students--or else she sends up sharing a room with one or two others, with the other Student girls sharing another room.

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For some reason I really like the idea of Silverstream being the first of the Student Six to genuinely try and make friends with Cozy as more than just the "school project" that they've been saddled with. Conversely I see Smolder and Gallus as the slowest to come around to the idea.

On the subject of roommates for Cozy, I was considering adding a small stable of new "background characters" who can pop in with semi-regularity. Namely, a kirin, a buffalo, and a diamond dog as new students, with part of "The Return of Cozy Glow" involving Cozy Glow turning these three on each other and the school and vice-versa. But after that's dealt with and settled down one of those three could end up as Cozy's roommate at some point. Plus since there's three they could serve as a vague Cutie Mark Crusaders analogue.

Also something admittedly weird I wanted to suggest with kirin...
I forget where I first saw it, I think I stumbled across the suggestion on 4chan, but...kirin appear to all be female. We never see any young kirin in their debut episode. Niriks are supposed to be the opposite of kirin. There haven't been any niriks for a while. So if you do the math...

Obviously this wouldn't strictly true - I choose to believe that there's multiple kirin villages in that valley, many more kirins then we actually saw, and if we go this route they probably had some means of turning into niriks under more controlled circumstances for the, ah, sake of the species...but my love of Star Trek and Weird Alien Biology and Ridiculous World of Magic has made me kind of really like the idea that kirins really are all female, but niriks are male. The transformation swaps their sex for as long as it lasts.

Which could lead to some fun writing stuff - like for example in kirin culture being masculine is literally synonymous with being furious and aggressive and destructive, which makes interacting with males awkward.

But I'm not married to the concept by any means so if there's any strong opposition I'll drop it. Like I said, this is just my fascination with Bizarre Alien Biology coming into play.

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or, the flip-side: Gallus and Sandbar who spend all year together are really getting on each other’s nerves and resent that they really can’t switch up like the girls can.

I actually was thinking about something similar, where Gallus and Sandbar decide they want to switch it up and try out new roommates for whatever reason--maybe, as you suggest, they're getting fed up with each others little quirks--and room up with somebody new for a change...only to find they ultimately missed rooming together and ultimately come back to rooming together again anyway.

I also had the thought that this might be our chance to fit in Cozy as being stuck as one of the Young Six's roommates under this arrangement.

At any rate, I'm game for shaking up the room arrangements, because it'd be a chance to explore something a little different rather than continue to do something everybody else is already doing anyway, and because the one problem I have with the "popular" rooming arrangements is that they also all, probably by design, fall along the same popular ships among the Young 6, and the consensus seems to be among us we want to leave the shipping alone for the most part (with the exception of Yonabar, seeing that's the one the show's directly supported already), so mixing up who's bunking with who would help minimize that temptation for the shippers among us. So there's that to consider too.

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RDD: I so wish I had your ability to look sideways at another species and really recognize just how their physiology would lead them to be so truly different and alien. As for other creatures to attend the school, I'd be all for it! I'd love for Yona to encounter a buffalo and wonder if perhaps Yaks weren't the biggest and strongest after all. Plus just very different cultures despite both being so big.

Scyphi: I can definitely see that. The Gallus/Sandbar room story would probably work best if it was later on in the year.

For the others, I was thinking we could work out a rotating system for each semester. Just as an example:
Fall: Smolder and Ocellus, Yona and Silverstream
Winter: Smolder and Silverstream, Yona and Ocellus
Spring: Smolder and Yona, Silverstream and Ocellus
Summer: N/A

I figure it'd be later on in the year, say for the spring semester, that Silverstream floats the idea of including Cozy into their rooming arrangements and when Sandbar and Gallus have finally had enough of one another and think about getting new roomies. Once we establish what the dorm arrangements will be, we can just post a note about it to make sure folks are aware and can keep it consistent.

I'm tempted to steal an idea from RDD's Lunaverse, which is divided by seasons for stories to occur in. I don't know how much the season will matter for each story (just as an example, I have a Spring Exhibition in "Art of the Dragon" but I can just as easily make it a fall or winter event and nothing in the story will be actually affected by this) but we might also want to have stories around Hearts and Hooves Day, Nightmare Night, Hearth's Warming Eve, etc.

I'm reminded of a term I heard used in relation to some TV shows: "tents and poles." The idea being that there are some episodes that are "poles" that introduce a change or have a development that affects the episodes coming after it. But in-between pole episodes there's some room for maneuvering. For example, if Episodes 1, 5 and 10 are all pole episodes, then you can switch the orders of episodes 2-4 and 6-9 around without any real consequences ... but you can't move episodes 2-4 to take place after 5 or episodes 6-9 to occur before 5.

But that'd require setting up the poles first, which would for us be major milestone's in Cozy's arc and the Lavan arc.

So, while I was tweaking "Art of the Dragon" to remove the more ship-teasey material, I had a thought occur to me for an episode.

I wrote my story operating on the assumption--based on the show--that Smolder hasn't shared her love of dresses and soft, cutesy stuff with the rest of her friends, just Ocellus (yes, the others saw the dress briefly in "Uprooted" but I don't think there's a specific reason to assume her friends followed up with her about it--it WAS a dream and they were quickly dealing with far more important matters which makes it easy to forget stuff--or that Smolder would've opened up about it even if they had pried). So my view is that Smolder's secret tea-parties are strictly a thing she just does with Ocellus.

Now what if, say, Cozy Glow happened to find out about this potentially embarrassing secret Smolder had been keeping from (most of) her friends? I can see some potential being had there--with Cozy being tempted to either use this as blackmail material or just to make this publicly known to humiliate Smolder. She might string Smolder along for a bit, get her to do stuff for her ... but is eventually swayed to not do this, marking another turning point in her arc and another step with one of her biggest skeptics.

It can also have Smolder grappling with her own issues, maybe ultimately deciding to tell her friends on her own (she COULD decide to tell her friends in order to disarm Cozy's blackmail, but I figured that'd make it far too hard to forgive Cozy for such a jerk-ass move so I'd suggest it happening on Smolder's own time and schedule, once the sword hanging over her head is removed and it's purely -her- choice). We could even go the route, though I'm not super-fond of it, of her friends having already known and figured out most of it a while ago. It's a bit cliched. But regardless, there's some opportunities for stories here. If anyone has their own thoughts to chime in with, I'd be interested.

(I'm starting to wonder if perhaps Brainstorming should have some sub-folders to deal with specific topics since it's already the biggest part of the forum and the topics have ranged from episode ideas to dorm arrangements to shipping to other creatures attending the school and character-specific stuff.)

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Brainstorming is supposed to be a sort of free-flowing stream of consciousness just discussing anything and everything. But that being said there's nothing preventing anyone from making a thread to dedicate to a specific discussion, if they want.

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Apparently, the official in-studio reason why the kirin were all seemingly female was actually because, due to production constraints for the episode, they didn't have the time or funding to produce male kirin assets in addition to the female, so they instead had to make do with what female kirin assets they were able to produce. So, in-studio, the only defining trait to determine whose actually male or female is whether or not they have the feminine eyelashes. No eyelashes, then it's male. Not ideal, but the best the show's crew could do under the circumstances. The point then being that there was intended to be separate male and female kirin and would've, had the show been granted to resources to do so.

That being said, I do find the idea intriguing...but I'm not sure including it here with the rest of the series would be the best place for it, at least to ensure it gets its best time in the spotlight. I think it might be an idea better served as it's own separate fic project, so it can dedicate itself fully to exploring the idea, without having to dance around all the other plot points of the series here. But that's just my two-bits on it.

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I like the idea, however it does present a conflict of interest for me, because when RDD first approached me about joining in on all of this, one idea we were discussing was one where Gallus and Smolder, in trying to pull a prank on him, accidentally break a special possession of Sandbar's and try to cover it up for fear of the outcomes, only for Cozy to find out about it and thusly proceeds to use that as blackmail against them. It wouldn't end quite in the same manner as your idea, obviously, but there is still quite a lot of parallel there to the point that I think it would be unwise to go forward with both ideas, at least as they presently stand. I would advise at least doing something to make one or the other stand out more plot-wise from each other.

Assuming both ideas actually go forward to be fully included in the series at all, of course--I've been operating on the assumption that the pranking idea I mentioned was good to proceed once I got to it, but admittedly, both me and RDD put more immediate focus on my other, time loop, idea (I probably ought to come clean on the details for that here soon, in fact--I'm sure lots of people are starting to wonder "Time loop? What time loop?" by now ) so it's not to say we should assume both ideas actually will make it to print, so to speak.

But then that's why we're here talking about it, isn't it?

Actually, since I assume a lot of us have contributions we're already committed to writing or are considering committing to for writing for this project, it might be a good idea for each one of us to come forward and give details on what they're planning to work on at present, if only so we can avoid potential clashes of ideas like this in the future. Might need a separate thread for that, though, if just to keep things organized.

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Ah, right, I do recall seeing that prank story description. Hm, they are a bit similar in concept so I can see what you mean. I'm not against reformulating mine to try to avoid any conflict/redundancies there.

Just to be clear, this isn't something like "Art of the Dragon" which was half-finished before RDD even came up with the Student Season idea and is now basically done. The blackmail idea was literally an idea I came up with just last night while spitballing; so I'm only tossing out ideas to see what sticks. It occured to me, so I'd thought I'd mention it.

If you or someone else can come up with a way to better demarcate the two story ideas so both can be done, I'd be all for that. If we can really only do one, then naturally I'd defer since the prank thing is the story you really want to tell; the way "Art of the Dragon" was the story that I really wanted to tell. This less than 12-hour old idea is not the hill upon which I'm determined to die, in other words.

I do think there is some potential to be had with Smolder's secret habits and Cozy finding out about them. Perhaps we could even flip the script, with Cozy finding out and wanting to help Smolder be as annoyingly, cloyingly cute as Cozy herself likes to act.

I think "Writing Workshop" is the place to talk about stories that we are pretty firmly committed to writing and making a part of the season. Brainstorming is a bit more, as RDD said in reply to me, "free-flowing stream of consciousness just discussing anything and everything."

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I admit I've been holding off on discussing the pranking idea before now anyway because I'd wanted to do a bit more to refine it, maybe add some sort of B-plot to go with it, so in a way I probably hadn't helped on that front. But it's out there now.

I do think there is some potential to be had with Smolder's secret habits and Cozy finding out about them. Perhaps we could even flip the script, with Cozy finding out and wanting to help Smolder be as annoyingly, cloyingly cute as Cozy herself likes to act.

You know, I like that idea even better anyway? I can totally see Cozy finding about Smolder's soft spot and going all "Cozy-nanas" over it and trying to egg Smolder on towards embracing it, while Smolder has to deal with her own lingering mixed feelings about it still. Maybe that's how she and Cozy finally "break the ice" and start to bond together, seeing we've been veering in the direction of Smolder as one of the group who's been the slowest to trust Cozy up to this point.

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Now, as I said, I'm just brainstorming here, I'm not committed to one idea over another yet. Maybe someone will chime in with a brilliant way to do two clearly different stories involving Cozy Glow blackmailing or threatening to blackmail Smolder over the prank affair and her secret hobbies.

But assuming for the moment that we do decide to go a different route than blackmail so as not to conflict or repeat with your story, I'm thinking that this would then take place sometime after your prank story. Cozy somehow walks in on Smolder or finds out about the dress and tea parties and such. Smolder, remembering what happened with the prank affair, fears Cozy will try to blackmail her again and goes out of her way to avoid being alone with Cozy. Then after some time of this Cozy finally corners her and -- instead of threatening her, she's excited that Smolder's trying to cutify herself, to Smolder's utter bafflement.

This can even be some weird insight into Cozy's worldview, 'if you're cute, other creatures will do anything for you!' which is definitely NOT what Smolder wants to get out of it. We can also have Cozy, perhaps unintentionally, make Smolder feel worse about her interests: e.g. "It sure is great you're looking to become more cute and civilized and less like a dragon!"

This can get spun one of two ways. Cozy can be deliberately giving Smolder ridiculous advice in order to make a fool out of her for her own amusement or general schemes--or she's actually trying, in her own weird way, to be helpful--while also no doubt figuring that bonding over this can help get her in with one of her biggest critics.

This could even perhaps tie-in with one of the possible episodes RDD pitched. There was one episode involving Smolder finding out Cozy was acting secretive with some letters she was writing and Smolder suspected she was up to no good. Cozy turns the School against Smolder, depicting her as being irrational, only for Smolder to find out that Cozy was writing letters to Tirek and Chrysalis, which she was not supposed to do. But Smolder lets her do this, so long as she sees the letters first.

I have to admit, this wasn't an idea that particularly grabbed me. It's a very by-the-numbers kind of plot that I've seen done before in lots of other places with very little to make it stand out--and reminds me far too much of "What About Discord?" the episode that made me lose most of my fondness for Discord--though keep in mind this WAS just an episode pitch, not a full-fleshed out outline or anything.

But what if there was some way to combine the two concepts? Cozy sees Smolder in her dress, shenanigans ensue, Smolder slowly starts to trust her a little ... then she sees the letters to her cohorts and assumes that Cozy's attempts at bonding were all a ploy to allay Smolder's suspicions of her. This causes some drama and we can play it either way: that Cozy was being genuine with Smolder, that Cozy was being somewhat cynical but also partly sincere, etc.

Thoughts?

This can even be some weird insight into Cozy's worldview, 'if you're cute, other creatures will do anything for you!'

Yeeeeessss, Cozy could be all like "Yes! FINALLY somebody who sees it MY way! I knew if I stuck at it long enough, I'd sway somebody over! Now we can join forces, you and me, Smolder, and we can take over this school with the power of CUTE!" while Smolder's all staring at her in bafflement going "wuuuuuut?"

More seriously, though, I would take it the Cozy's being genuine about this path, as I see the whole pitch as an excellent way for Smolder and Cozy to start to bridge that gap between them, maybe even make peace, or at least take the first steps towards it. And what better way to do that than over an actual common interest? Then they start doing all the typical cute things together, slowly bonding, and Smolder starting to think 'hey, you know this isn't actually so bad'...just in time for the whole letter thing to come up challenging Smolder's faith in Cozy right when she was just starting to trust Cozy. And then, regardless of whatever Cozy's actual intents behind the letters are, we could have that hit Cozy harder than even she expected, finding she was actually starting to enjoy that "cute time" with Smolder and finds she'd hate to lose it.

And I'd be game to have this take place after my pranking idea and have the two loosely tie in with each other--I think that'd be a great idea.

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Cozy somehow walks in on Smolder

My sense of dammit-I-wish-I-was-a-TV-director is ringing. I'm seeing a cold open of Ocellus and Smolder having a tea party.

Ocellus: "Another lump of sugar?"
Smolder: "If you don't mind..."
Cozy: [opens the door] "Heya Ocellus I need..."
[staring ensues]
Cozy: "Ha...haha...mwahahahahahaha Ocellus I need to borrow a book hahahahahahaha!!!"
[~My little pony, my little pony...~]

Or alternatively...

Ocellus: "Another lump of sugar?"
Smolder: "If you don't mind..."
Cozy: [opens the door] "Heya Ocellus I need..."
[staring ensues]
Cozy: "...you're busy. I'll come back." [closes the door]
Smolder: "...oh f—"
[~My little pony, my little pony...~]

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Ha, either of those would be great ways to open it! Not really a need to beat about the bush much with it anyway, so might as well get right to the point, right?

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HA! Don't make me choose! XD

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I would go with the second. It builds a bit more of a scene, I think.

Pony: Foal steps
Yak: Calf hops
Dragon: Hatchling sparks
Griffon: Chick flaps
Changeling: Larva nips
Hippogriff/Seapony: Fry twirls

I'm writing "The Return of Cozy Glow, part 1" right now and decided to have a little fun with Yona, Smolder, and Gallus getting a little lost in translation.

This is shaping up great!

A few general thoughts.

Height
This one is actually "canon" since we can just compare the Student Six from in-show shots. Silverstream is the tallest; when standing normally the top of her head is just sightly over Yona's hump (and her mane makes her look taller still). Yona is the second-tallest due to that hump. Gallus is actually third-tallest; his crest of feathers is slightly over Yona's hump but his actual head is just below it. Sandbar and Smolder are about the same height, and Ocellus is the shortest, although the taller point of her horn is just about equal in height to Yona's or Gallus' head. Overall, though, the six of them aren't really that different in height.

For some reason though I'd kind of like to slightly over-exaggerate this: Silverstream is, while not giant, notably taller to the point where "statuesque" isn't a bad way to describe her (I also see her as being, frankly, gorgeous by "conventional" standards, i.e. she could easily be a supermodel), while Ocellus is small enough for it to be commented upon (not, like, a dwarf, but still small). Mostly because I'm writing a scene right now where five of the six of the Student Six are meeting up on their way back to the Friendship School and I found myself writing Ocellus as being physically "passed around" to be hugged ("On the one hoof, this is degrading...on the other hoof, it's delicious.").

Flight
There is absolutely nothing canonical for me to base this on...but my personal thought is Gallus is the fastest flier, followed by a rough tie between Silverstream and Smolder, with Ocellus being the slowest flier. However Smolder has the other three beat by a country mile in terms of endurance, that is, she can keep flying basically forever, or at least long after the other three have to take a break. In terms of agility, meanwhile, it's Ocellus who has the other three beat, with Gallus and Silverstream roughly tied while Smolder is a somewhat clumsy or at least not very maneuverable flier (she has a bigger "turn radius").

Swimming
Obviously Silverstream in her seapony form beats the rest of them in every way unless Ocellus shifts into something that's as good or better. However in a straight line, Smolder is actually almost as fast, due to a mixture of draconic muscles and a body adapted to swimming in lava. Once again Smolder loses out in maneuverability. Sandbar is a very strong swimmer for a pony. Gallus, Silverstream as a hippogriff, and Ocellus are all about "average", with maybe a slight advantage to Silverstream. Yona is the worst swimmer in that she actually doesn't know how to swim and has a degree of aquaphobia.

Strength
Smolder's mighty draconic thews make her the physically strongest of the Young-6. Yona is almost as strong. Sandbar actually has a surprising amount of strength for his size and build thanks to earth pony magic; he's no Applejack or Big "I'mma drag an entire house behind me" Mac, but he's capable of lifting or carrying Yona, at least, with little difficulty. Gallus and Silverstream are about equal, and Ocellus is the physically weakest in her natural form. This same ranking also applies to how "tough" the Young Six are.

Changelings
Changelings are OP pls nerf.

• The more mass a changeling is adding or subtracting, the shorter their shapeshift lasts.
• Changelings are always just a little bit worse than whatever they turn into, and are limited by their own magic output (a changeling couldn't become Twilight and gain phenomenal magical power, for example, or become Rainbow Dash and become the fastest thing in Equestria).
• Shapeshifting draws on a reservoir of magic/love (the same thing for changelings). The longer the shapeshift lasts or the more complex it is, the more magic/love it consumes. A Reformed changelings' reservoir of magic/love refills over time, but they can also eat love (preferably freely shared love) to recover it faster. A Reformed changeling who isn't using any magic doesn't deplete their reservoir and so doesn't get hungry for love.
• Changeling joints are "loose" and can rotate in weird ways (e.g., rotate their head 180 degrees on their neck). This has nothing to do with shapeshifting, it's just a natural trait
• Changelings can spit out calcifying ooze (to make restraints, cocoons, or structures) or dissolving ooze (to dissolve the calcifying ooze, it's harmless to anything else). But Reformed changelings try not to 'cause most creatures find it gross.

Flight
There is absolutely nothing canonical for me to base this on...but my personal thought is Gallus is the fastest flier, followed by a rough tie between Silverstream and Smolder, with Ocellus being the slowest flier. However Smolder has the other three beat by a country mile in terms of endurance, that is, she can keep flying basically forever, or at least long after the other three have to take a break. In terms of agility, meanwhile, it's Ocellus who has the other three beat, with Gallus and Silverstream roughly tied while Smolder is a somewhat clumsy or at least not very maneuverable flier (she has a bigger "turn radius").

This is something I think could be good to play with - the four fliers are extremely different and it's at least good minor details to play with. (Albeit I see Silverstream more as the endurance flier - she's a species based around oceanic travel, where a 'short hop' to the nearest island is half a day or more.)

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Hmm, that’s a good point. My idea of making Smolder the best at endurance-flying was based atound dragons just being built Tonka tough, but you’ve got a point about hippogriffs likely being able to do it as well due to being sea birds. So let’s instead call that something of a tie as well.

Which actually reminds me of something else. In the movie, Skystar is able to give air-bubbles to the Mane-6 and Spike, apparently before the Pearl is broken up and handed out to the hippogriff race, though Skystar may already possess a piece of it, or a copy of some sort. Should Silverstream be able to do the same thing? Also, does her pearl shard work for others if they were to try and use it?

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Which actually reminds me of something else. In the movie, Skystar is able to give air-bubbles to the Mane-6 and Spike, apparently before the Pearl is broken up and handed out to the hippogriff race, though Skystar may already possess a piece of it, or a copy of some sort. Should Silverstream be able to do the same thing? Also, does her pearl shard work for others if they were to try and use it?

I'd say no on the air bubbles - she has prime opportunity to do it when Yona gets dumped in the river in Non-Compete Clause but doesn't. (More accurately I'd file it under less 'unique magic' and more 'never learned how', which makes sense since Skystar was surface-interested from the beginning and her learning how to do it's in character for her.)

Pearl usage.. I'd personally say it can be used. We know the magic can affect others from Surf And/Or Turf, and the Movie expresses direct fear that the Storm King will steal the Pearl and use it. So it's implied that the magic can be used by others and we know for certain it can affect others. They may not know how to use it, though. (Smolder waving the thing around demanding it work is an image that comes to mind.)

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Going off of that, there's also the thought that surely it'd just be smarter and easier to either transform the fellow into a sea pony form or just help them swim to the surface, dry land, or wherever else they need to go.

I figured Skystar resorted to the bubbles only because that was the next best available option to her, as she didn't have access to the pearl or its magic for a full-on transformation, which was part of the reason why she brought them to Queen Novo in the first place.

I think that it could be a lot of fun to have set roommates, but I (might be alone in this) personally don't see the point of segregating everyone by gender! The interesting things that could happen in a rooming situation with Yona and Gallus, for example, outweigh the unrealistic fact that a boy and girl are rooming together, for me.

As an alternative, I might suggest that every student has their own room, but within that room is a bunk bed that allows for constant slumber parties or unofficial roommates. I feel like that's something that Twilight would want—a system that understands that everycreature needs their own space sometimes but allows for them to invite their friends into it.

I also see Silverstream as the de facto endurance flier, but maybe with the caveat that as Smolder's wings get bigger with her molts she kind of catches up. Dragons being the most durable I totally agree with.

Love the idea of exaggerating the students' heights a little bit.

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but I (might be alone in this) personally don't see the point of segregating everyone by gender!

I'm not entirely opposed to this. While it might be "realistic" to have gender-segregated dorms, and even though we're writing a more "adult" version of the show (by virtue of being adults and writing for adults), this is still the world of My Little Pony. They don't normally wear clothes anyway...and it would open up some interesting character moments, you're right.

The bunk bed idea isn't a bad one either. The wiki lists 57 students, so around say sixty or seventy small dorm rooms isn't impossible. I'd float that it's more likely to be that there's a mix, though, some dorms having four or five or six residents, some having two or three, and some having just one.

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I'm a bit mixed in my thoughts. Giving everyone their own room with a bunk-bed option opens some story options ... but closes others. After all, if one character is having a fight with a friend, they can just go back to their own room. Being roommates means they have to stay in proximity to each other and work it out--which is also a friendship lesson I can see Twilight advancing.

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There's upside and downsides both ways to these ideas, so I guess it comes down to which you think will be the best overall. Personally, I am mixed on both too.

I've floated the idea of mixed gender bunking before myself but never pursued it, not so much with consideration for complications of me writing it but more for the expectations of the brony audience at large who read it, because mixing genders like that is inevitably going to lead the shippy among us to assume shipping must, thereby, transpire. It's sort of why the real world gender segregates in the first place--that potential is always dangling in the back of one's head.

So I would argue it'd be smarter to not string readers along into expecting a potential ship that will never come, unless we fully intend to make good on that ship. A sort of "Chekhov's gun" kind of consideration, if you will. And if that means maintaining convention and gender segregating the dorms, then so be it.

As for the bunk beds, I agree with Trinary--it'd open up some storytelling avenues but close off others too, and in the end, I'm not convinced the trade-off would be worth it in the long run.

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Well, to some extent ship-teasing is inevitable. Like, I was writing the scene where Yona, Smolder, and Gallus meet up with Ocellus and Silverstream on their way back to Ponyville, and after writing it I realized that I’d put more than enough fuel on the fire for basically any ship combination you would want between the five, with highlights including:

• Gallus and Smolder having a strong rapport with each other throughout and being the two who sit together, even noted as sharing a mutual “hoard” of luggage;
• Silverstream taking the time to head up early so that she could hang out with Ocellus for a day, and then also sitting with one wing folded around Ocellus;
• Smolder being extremely eager to get in on “pass buggy” and being the only one for whom Ocellus opens up her elytra for;
• Ocellus being noted as taking a quick nibble of Gallus’ love for her (albeit the text does note that it’s amicable love, not romantic), and also coming around to “pass buggy” when handed over to Gallus
• Silverstream nuzzling Gallus and noting that he gives the best hugs, while the two of them use their wings to hug each other

Add in that Gallus and Sandbar later have a bit of bro-crying at meeting up again, or Yona and Smolder having a bit of friendly competitive streak with one another, and anyone wearing shipping goggles would probably read into any of this, and definitely would if it was animated. And that was just me writing them “normally”, I wasn’t intentionally trying to imply any ships, except maybe a bit of closer-ness between Smolder and Ocellus and between Gallus and Silverstream as a holdover from their Tree of Harmony adventure in “What Lies Beneath”.

So I would argue it'd be smarter to not string readers along into expecting a potential ship that will never come, unless we fully intend to make good on that ship. A sort of "Chekhov's gun" kind of consideration, if you will. And if that means maintaining convention and gender segregating the dorms, then so be it.

I don't think gender segregating is going to stop shipping bait from being created, especially in a fandom where the six female main characters have all been shipped together in every conceivable pairing across thousands of stories on the site. Shipping goggles are gonna taint every scene we write anyway so I don't see the point in trying to account for them.

Fair enough on the "everyone having their own room" thing though! I was just trying to offer a potential alternative.

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I don't think gender segregating is going to stop shipping bait from being created

Nothing stops shipping bait. Up to and including death.

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All of which true, but I still feel like we shouldn't just dismiss it out of turn, because nothing's more awkward than having your audience of readers all start rooting for a particular shipping you, the author, knows will never be coming. Trust me--been there, done that.

But, you know, the idea of this thread is for all of us to pitch in our two-bits on ideas, so I was just doing the same here. If the rest of you decide we want to go the non-segregated route, I'll certainly not fight it. I just thought it was a concern worth noting for the record still.

Honestly, the non-segregated route does have potential--like I said earlier, I have considered doing it myself before. Not sure how I'd go about handling it myself...but that's a me problem.

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That is a fair concern to have. I'm just worried about taking it too far in the other direction - making decisions based on the ships we don't want to happen and thus denying what might be a better story if we just let things flow naturally.

I'm going to stay out of the shipping question and focus more about the room mechanics and story opportunities I see stemming from them.

What I'm proposing is that Freshman (and likely Sophomores) would indeed have their own individual rooms. The logic of the School would consider it best to give the students space to be themselves and familiarize themselves with this new place and new creatures. This would let them go out and make friends on their own time when they were ready; rather than tossing them together at the start based on dorm room assignments (or silly homework assignments, but I digress) to try to force them to be friends. At least, I hope the School would be that smart. Perhaps with each room having a bunkbed for the sleepover idea raised.

But when students enter their junior and senior years, it's expected that they'd have made at least some friends among their fellow students and would now have permanent roommates. It'd be a learning experience about how to deal with other creatures, sharing a living space and everything that comes with that.

The Student Six, now being juniors and close friends, are excited by the prospect. This has potential since it's easy to assume that being friends with something automatically mean you'll get along great as roommates when that really isn't necessarily the case. This could lead to a lot of adjusting, some interpersonal frictions, etc. Plus more opportunities for closer, interpersonal relationships between any combination of members of the Student Six.

The idea I raised a while back was that each semester, the room assignments could change in order to have the Student Six move around so we don't have one permanent roommate for the whole school year (and thus feed into shipping fuel).

Operating on the assumption that there would likely be some gender separation, I proposed a rotating system for the four girls.
E.g.
Fall: Smolder and Ocellus, Yona and Silverstream
Winter: Smolder and Silverstream, Yona and Ocellus
Spring: Smolder and Yona, Silverstream and Ocellus
Summer: N/A

Gallus and Sandbar would be roommates throughout ... and by Spring semester they'd be getting a little antsy at being with each other nonstop and perhaps thinking about switching it up; while Silverstream proposed including Cozy Glow into the girls rooming arrangements at this point; leading to some drama.

I like their being some measure of permanence (if only for a single semester) to these roommates because it forces the Students in question to interact and work through whatever issues come up; rather than having an easy exit of just going back to their own rooms when things get tough. It also means that the bond between the Six is that much stronger since roommates will spend weeks with one another and get to know them inside and out (no, not like that). Introducing mixed-gender rooms does mean that there will be more double combinations than can be explored per semester.

But that's just my preferences.

Throwing another housing idea out there: when I was in college, the best student housing wasn’t in a dorm, but in a college house. These were basically single-family homes near the campus where all the bedrooms were converted to single or double rooms, usually way smaller than the rooms you got in a dorm. However, the houses’ living rooms got converted to common areas that were shared between 6-10 students, as opposed to a few hundred. The houses also had way better kitchens than the dorms, so most students in a house switched to a limited meal plan so they could cook for themselves more. Living in a house gave you more independence as well as a chance to better bond with a more limited number of classmates.

So what I’m getting at is move the Young Six into the Crystal Treehouse. This gets us to use the Treehouse more, as Scyphi and Trinary were talking about last week, and opens up some flexibilities with how the students room. One route would be to have everyone living in singles, but you could still have a plotline where Sandbar and Gallus are getting on each other’s nerves because they share a bathroom or get into arguments over how to use the common areas. You could also have some mix of singles and doubles, so maybe the girls are in singles, while Gallus and Sandbar are in a double because they wanted a bathroom to themselves.

Another route would be to embrace the Treehouse’s magical nature. The Treehouse could change layout depending on how the gang are relating to each other, House of Leaves-style, so the Young Six are more separated when they’re not getting along, or alternatively are locked in one room together when they need to work through something. This also can reflect Cozy Glow’s character development. Suppose at the start of Fall, there are six singles, which naturally are the Young Six’s rooms. Then, about midway through, a seventh room appears. The gang have to make a decision about whether to invite Cozy Glow into it, and therefore into their space.

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The Treehouse, unless I misremember, is in the Everfree Forest. That's not the most convenient place for student housing, even if only in terms of distance. They'd have to walk from the Treehouse to School each morning for classes, head back to drop off stuff for one class and to pick up stuff for another, head back to School again if they want to grab food from the cafeteria or from Ponyville itself, talk to their teachers, etc. It's a long schlep when the School itself has perfectly functioning dorms.

The Treehouse is a good meet-up place when the Six want to hang out or have some privacy, not so much as living quarters for the School year. Does the place even -have- bathrooms? Who would even want to use them if the Spirit is still hanging around? Massively weird.

When you add in the fact that the Six are meant to be keeping an eye on Cozy, who I cannot imagine the School would -ever- let stay off campus, then the Treehouse becomes totally impractical as their living quarters. I also really don't care for the Tree adding an extra room for Cozy, given the Tree's connection to the Elements, especially since that can be interpreted as making Cozy the seventh member of the Elements which I am totally against.

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Does the place even -have- bathrooms?

Who knows? The show never took the dang time to really show anything of the inside!

That said, looking at Twilight's castle and how it came about through very similar origins, and the fact that it's pretty sizeable itself, I think it does have facilities such as that, though I wouldn't expect anything super extravagant...unless we want to assume the Treehouse is bigger on the inside much like Twilight's castle is.

As for the Treehouse being living quarters...yeah, Trinary brings up some good logistical concerns we would need to hammer out first (and yes, the Treehouse is in Everfree)...but I really REALLY like the idea, so much so I really want to make it work in at least some capacity, because not only is it really clever, it would, as 7289134 pointed out, help resolve some of our problems. So there's got to be a way to make it work, even if partially.

The catacombs under the school seemed to be interconnected in some manner with the Tree of Harmony...maybe it also could provide some sort of shortcut to and from the Treehouse?

I have to agree with Trinary though and be against the idea of the Tree adding "rooms" with consideration of Cozy, because that does imply she could potentially rise to Element-levels of inclusion, and I don't think that'd be a smart route to go, not with Cozy still having plenty of reforming she would still need to do, even after the supposed "end" of this series. (Though if it weren't for that, I admit I would probably be for the idea otherwise, if only it gives a good excuse to directly include Cozy in the group's affairs too)

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On the rooming situation, allowing some dorms to have single occupants isn't a bad idea, but I feel I ought to point out the logistical problem of space for such rooms. There's a reason why most schools have their dorms shared with other students--it helps save space, allowing them to fit more students to a smaller space. And the School of Friendship is neither especially big nor that prestigious (I wouldn't consider it the Equestrian equivalent of an ivy-league school at least, or not yet at this point in time [maybe by "The Last Problem's" time frame, but that's largely irrelevant to this project]), so it's not like it's going to have that much space to spare. Somebody said the school has around about fifty students, but I guarantee you it in actuality has much more than that, it just wasn't practical for the show to render it in full with the resources available--much like how Ponyville's populace is typically shown to consist of roughly the same amount of ponies, but we can be certain it's population is actually much larger than that too (especially when you consider how many are present in city-wide gatherings).

Further, the wiki really only lists named or clearly established characters in the sense they're an iconic enough a Flash asset that fans can easily pick them out again in a crowd if needed. More generic background characters are not so clearly tracked (though to the wiki's credit it certainly tries). Point is, I wouldn't treat it's list as the master list of ALL of the students at the school, just the key or more iconic ones.

Plus, we've already decided we're bringing in more newcomer students for this, so the number's going up anyway.

So unless the school's also expanding is dorms and housing to consider this whole arrangement (or start making use of Twilight's castle for student housing--I've seen that idea been adopted by a fic or two already and seeing it's currently empty and would have way more empty space than just Starlight or even the rest of the school staff would need all to themselves, it makes sense to do so), I worry the school wouldn't logically have the space to allow for such an arrangement.

Not that I'm against the idea of single occupant dorms. We would just need to consider how to best use the space available to us for that purpose first, make sure it's believable in consideration with what we know of the school (I recently started a new thread discussing the layout of the school and nailing down something akin to a loose floorplan for it--might be stuff there already that could help with determining that).

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I only brought up the idea of single-room dorms to try to float as a compromise between Semillion's idea of single-rooms with bunkbeds for extended sleepovers (which is the kind of thing I can see the School trying to encourage, if feasible) with the ideas I preferred for a more permanent roommates in shared dorms. I think RDD and others suggested that it wasn't impossible for the School to have enough rooms for everyone to get their own solo room, but I have no definite position on it. I just prefer the dorm set-up because I think it lends itself to better story opportunities.

The same with the Treehouse proposal. I'm all for finding more ways to make the place more relevant but I just don't care for the idea of it being their living quarters. It feels like putting them there loses some of the intimacy of the School setting when the Student Six (and apparently just them, since there's no other analogous place other students can stay off campus) are that far removed from the School itself. It isolates them a bit too much. I like the idea of them walking out their room and going into a student common room or encountering other students as they head to grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria or just as they head to the bathrooms to use the shower. It makes it feel like they're part of a living, breathing, wider world. Having the six off on their own in their Treehouse would lose that feel and make them a bit cliquish and apart from the developments of the School. I also just can't see Starlight or the staff being okay with the kids being off on their own, without supervision, at a clubhouse in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

I wouldn't mind there being something like, one or two weekends a month the Students sleep in the Treehouse because Twilight (or someone else) wants to study the Students' relationship with the former Tree and the Elements of Harmony, to see if they really are the next Bearers and what that entails, etc. But as a permanent place for them to live? I'm just decidedly 'meh' towards the idea.

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I had totally forgotten it’s in the Everfree Forest Maybe there is something we could do with the tunnels, like 7289225, or have it as their getaway (as opposed to day-to-day) lodgings, though.

I do wish there was a way to have the treehouse shape shift, since it’d be both magical and creepy, but not I’m sure what purpose that would serve.

I do wish there was a way to have the treehouse shape shift, since it’d be both magical and creepy, but not I’m sure what purpose that would serve.

To remind us that it's magical and creepy. It's the self-aware physical incarnation of thousand year old condensed magic. If it doesn't occasionally wave the I'M WEIRD flag, something's wrong.

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I like the cut of your jib, friend.

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I also just can't see Starlight or the staff being okay with the kids being off on their own, without supervision, at a clubhouse in the middle of the Everfree Forest.

Well, maybe not long term, but nobody seemed to have any real issue with them going to hang out there by themselves throughout season 9, so it must not have been too much of an issue...

Come to think of it, by that point in the show, lots of characters would regularly travel to and from that particular area of Everfree all the time and do so without much of any incident, so that suggests to me that whatever path they use to get there must still be fairly safe to travel in comparison to the rest of Everfree. Though most of those trips take place during the day, when Everfree does seem to be notably less dangerous--it's a different story if you try navigating it at night.

Still, I suppose you do raise a good point about how it would isolate the Young 6 from the rest of school life, and I admit I wouldn't want to loose that either, so I guess no-go on the Treehouse as dorms.

Nevertheless, it gives us a few ideas on how we might want to approach implementing the Treehouse into all of this, because I absolutely do want to get the Treehouse in on this and make it a regular setting that they visit throughout the series, unlike how the show did.

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Bit of a difference between a day trip and living out there as their dwelling, but you got my point.

The Everfree is ... whatever the show needs it to be at the moment.

I am definitely for ways to include the Treehouse more. I'm thinking that someone, Twilight or Sunburst or whomever, can display a little genre-savvy and forward thinking, recognizing that the Student Six are clearly the next generation (Cue Star Trek TNG theme) or incarnation or what have you of the Pillars/Elements. It might be an interesting on-going thing to have them periodically head out to the Treehouse to try to 'connect' with the Spirit. Sunburst (Twi would like to but is probably too busy) could head on out with them to observe and try to figure out why the Spirit revealed itself to the Students but never to the Pillars or Elements.

Since RDD is such a Babylon 5 fan (as am I) perhaps we could have the Spirit channel Zathras a bit.

Spirit: *Speaking to the assembled heroes. Looks at the Pillar* "You're the One Who Was." *Looks to the Mane Six* "You're the One Who Is." *looks to the Student Six* "You're the One Who Will Be."

Everyone love Zathras.

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Well, the Babylon 5 references go over my head, unfortunately...but I got the other one!

I kind of still want plenty of instances though where there's no extra motive or reason to be at the Treehouse other than just to hang out, and that's just where the Young Six go to do so--like how the CMC go and hangout at their own clubhouse more often than not.

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That works too. It can be their private hang out for Ogres and Oubliettes, games, or just relaxing after classes.

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Cozy and Sandbar get stuck in an elevator after an explosion and Cozy is deliberately unhelpful and actually laughing at their predicament even as smoke and heat seep into the elevator from a fire outside!

Just kidding. Hmm, I wonder if there are any B5 episodes I could wholly rip off, though...

Cozy: “Aw, please, Smolder? Every creature has something they really truly want! And I just love getting it for them! So what do you want?”
Smolder: “I want to be there when everyone else comes to their senses and puts you back in stone, forever, as a warning to the next ten generations of ponies that some creatures are just beyond hope. I want to look up into your big, petrified eyes and wave, like this.” [waves] “Do you think you could do that for me, Cozy?”

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Just kidding. Hmm, I wonder if there are any B5 episodes I could wholly rip off, though...

Discord: "What do you want?"

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I...do not trust myself to write Discord. I’m not saying we shouldn’t, just that I shouldn’t.

On the subject of living arrangements, here's a thought. The Student Six's class is the very first class in this school, there were never any upper classmen above them and Twilight was kind of making things up as she went along. So it could be that for their first two years at school they had year-long assigned dormitories with two students per dorm - but Twilight would definitely want to have sleepovers and stuff be possible, so the dorms beds might have been bunk-beds anyway, or had pullout beds or the like. Some students could just use the top bunk as extra storage space as well, essentially a comfy shelf.

With junior year and as a sort of school experiment, though, the faculty has decided to mix things up a bit and go in for the rotating dorm arrangement for the first time, as well as maybe letting students pick their dorm-mates. So for example as implied in "2, 4, 6, Great", Ocellus and Yona did share a dorm, at least in their sophomore year, but moving into this junior year both are gonna bunk with one of their other friends, along the lines of what Trinary suggested here, 7288938.